rough idle and failure to take gas

[irishmike]

hi my 94 camry vienta csx 3.0 v6 3vz-fe when i crank the engine after leaving it idle for a few hours it turns over and won't fire up or else jus idle's very roughly and wont take gas. after turning off the ignition and restarting it the engine fires up and runs fine. today while idling at traffic lights i went to move off and same thing happened it started idling rough and wouldn,t take gas i had to restart it and it ran fine. any suggustions on what might be the problem

[ASG14]

Do you mean you have a 3VZ-FE engine?

Is the Check Engine Light on?

[irishmike]

yes thats the engine and no the check engine does not come on but is working as it comes on when the ignition is on

[ASG14]

Hmmmmmm........

When you start the car, if you hit the gas just before it stalls, it STILL stalls, or it will keep running?

[irishmike]

when it starts to idle roughly i have to keep my foot on the pedel if i take it off it cuts out i,ve been told its the throttle position sensor so i'm gonna change that and hopefully it'll solve the problem

[73sport]

It appears the 93 - 95 V6's all use the same tps. That being the case my local toyo dealer said that had not sold any in the past year. That's not to say you're isn't bad, but I wouldn't throw money at that until i tested it with a volt/ohm meter. Pull up one of the online pdf manuals and it'll have directions on how to do that. http://www.camrystuff.com/index.php?page=Gen3_Manuals << that doesn't have the 3VZ, but it dies tell you how to test the TPS.

You never said if it runs bad other times, so i'd suspect the IAC valve to be more likely.

What month is the door plate sticker say the car was made? It looks like it must an early 94 to have the 3VZ.

Is it temperature sensitive, does it run better when cold, or hot?

[hill8570]

+1^

I'd give the throttle body and IAC ports a good cleaning before I went anywhere near the TPS.

See DIY: Cleaning the Throttlebody (5S-FE - other engines similar)

[ASG14]

IAC as stated above, or possibly the EGR valve sticking open allowing too much exhaust gas in, hence stalling the engine.

[irishmike]

got a second hand tps from local wrecker an changed it and problem solved . but new problem now changed the spark plugs yesterday and got the recommended bosch plugs from parts store but car is misfiring since i put the new ones in the old ones were bosch super fours but as i threw them away i cannot put them back and my parts store doesnt sell them any suggestions

[hill8570]

Never put Bosch plugs in a Camry -- they don't get along. Denso or NGK platinums or NGK Iridium IX will give the best life, although Denso or NGK "standard" plugs will work OK...just won't last past 30K miles.